Related papers: A generalization of concise words

If w is a word in d>1 letters and G is a finite group, evaluation of w on a uniformly randomly chosen d-tuple in G gives a random variable with values in G, which may or may not be uniform. It is known that if G ranges over finite simple…

Let $w$ be a group-word. Suppose that the set of all $w$-values in a profinite group $G$ is contained in a union of countably many subgroups. It is natural to ask in what way the structure of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ depends on the…

Let $w$ be a word in the free group of rank $n \in \mathbb{N}$ and let $\mathcal{V}(w)$ be the variety of groups defined by the law $w=1$. Define $\mathcal{V}(w^*)$ to be the class of all groups $G$ in which for any infinite subsets $X_1,…

We consider the class of groups whose word problem is poly-context-free; that is, an intersection of finitely many context-free languages. We show that any group which is virtually a finitely generated subgroup of a direct product of free…

Anisimov and Seifert show that a group has a regular word problem ifand only if it is finite. Muller and Schupp (together with Dunwoody's accessibility result) show that a group has context free word problem if and only if it is virtually…

Let $w = w(x_1,..., x_n)$ be a word, i.e. an element of the free group $F =<x_1,...,x_n>$ on $n$ generators $x_1,..., x_n$. The verbal subgroup $w(G)$ of a group $G$ is the subgroup generated by the set $\{w (g_1,...,g_n)^{\pm 1} | g_i \in…

An element w in the free group on r letters defines a map f from G^r to G for each group G. In this note, we show that whenever w is non-trivial and G is a semisimple algebraic group, f is dominant. When G is a finite simple group, the…

Let $F$ be a free non-abelian group. We show that for any group word $w$ the set $w[F]$ of all values of $w$ in $F$ is rational in $F$ if and only if $w[F] = 1$ or $w[F] = F.$ We generalize this to a wide class of free products of groups.

By strengthening known results about primitivity-blocking words in free groups, we prove that for any nontrivial element w of a free group of finite rank, there are words that cannot be subwords of any cyclically reduced automorphic image…

We establish new characterizations of primitive elements and free factors in free groups, which are based on the distributions they induce on finite groups. For every finite group $G$, a word $w$ in the free group on $k$ generators induces…

Let w be a group-word. Suppose that the set of all w-values in a profinite group G is contained in a union of countably many cosets of subgroups. We are concerned with the question to what extent the structure of the verbal subgroup w(G)…

We show that for any finite group $G$ and for any $d$ there exists a word $w\in F_{d}$ such that a $d$-tuple in $G$ satisfies $w$ if and only if it generates a solvable subgroup. In particular, if $G$ itself is not solvable, then it cannot…

A group is combable if it can be represented by a language of words satisfying a fellow traveller property; an automatic group has a synchronous combing which is a regular language. This paper gives a systematic analysis of the properties…

Elements of the free group define interesting maps, known as word maps, on groups. It was previously observed by Lubotzky that every subset of a finite simple group that is closed under endomorphisms occurs as the image of some word map. We…

We show that if $w$ is a multilinear commutator word and $G$ a finite group in which every metanilpotent subgroup generated by $w$-values is of rank at most $r$, then the rank of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is bounded in terms of $r$ and $w$…

A group is combable if it can be represented by a language of words satisfying a fellow traveller property; an automatic group has a synchronous combing which is a regular language. This article surveys results for combable groups, in…

Howie and Duncan observed that a word in a free product with length at least two and which is not a proper power can be decomposed as a product of two cyclic subwords each of which is uniquely positioned. Using this property, they proved…

The \emph{word problem} of a group $G = \langle \Sigma \rangle$ can be defined as the set of formal words in $\Sigma^*$ that represent the identity in $G$. When viewed as formal languages, this gives a strong connection between classes of…

We study the girth of Cayley graphs of finite classical groups G on random sets of generators. Our main tool is an essentially best possible bound we obtain on the probability that a given word w takes the value 1 when evaluated in G in…

We give new characterizations of sofic groups: -- A group $G$ is sofic if and only if it is a subgroup of a quotient of a direct product of alternating or symmetric groups. -- A group $G$ is sofic if and only if any system of equations…